Even though Wilmington has grown tremendously, especially in the last quarter century, it has not entirely given up its small-town roots.

There is a sense of loss with the closing of Cooperative Bank, a family-run business – a community bank that survived the Great Depression. Many family-run businesses are still in evidence.

Those names are on municipal buildings, museums, hospital wings, parks and even magnificent stained-glass windows. Other family-run businesses have contributed to the community in other ways, continuing the tradition that their great-grandparents began when cotton bales were still loaded onto sailing ships on Water Street.

We asked three Wilmington, multi-generational, family-owned businesses to share their thoughts on how they have managed to stay afloat and prosper year after year.

Hanover Iron Works was started in 1903 by Tommy King’s grandfather and great-grandfather on Market Street. The iron works, now a fifth-generation family-owned business, is still in the city, although it has moved several times. The city’s push to redevelop the downtown in the late 1950s, forced the company from its Water Street location to its present spot on Dawson Street.

When King’s son, Thompson, showed an interest in the sheet metal aspect of the business, the company spun off its sheet-metal work in January with Thompson as its CEO.

How did Hanover Iron Works manage to last as an entity for more than 100 years and five generations? The answer, Tommy King said, is fairly simple. “We were lucky to have a male heir come along,” he said, quickly adding that there are many successful women in the construction trades, but it is usually the exception, not the rule.
King started in the business as a youngster.

“The first money I ever got was from my father for sweeping floors,” he said. He gained more experience by working every summer through his college years.

King’s brother, Billy, worked for IBM for many years before starting his own software company. After selling the business, he joined the family firm, now owned by his brother.

Tommy King said his son has two daughters, so he doesn’t know if they’ll want to take over the company someday. But, whatever happens, King said, “I have no regrets. I’m grateful. It’s been a great ride.”

Walker Taylor III said his insurance and risk management company dates back to 1866.

“My grandfather came in about 1878 as a young man. He started as an office boy, and he took over the business around the 1880s. We’ve been here ever since.”

Now in its fifth generation, the company is headed by company president, Walker Taylor IV and his sister Katherine Grainger Taylor, executive vice president.

“My son approves my paycheck and my daughter signs it,” the senior Taylor said, laughing. “I’ve got two grandsons who are working in the office as summer interns. I hope, of course, they can make it a career. We’re happy to have them.”

Taylor said he grew up with Frederick Willetts II, father of the latest of the Willetts to run Cooperative Bank.

“I admire the Willetts family. They have a lot of integrity and must be having a tough time. I’m not sure, but my hat’s off to them.”

“I’ve known them for generations. Rick’s father and I were in WWII together. I actually ran into him once in the South Pacific in New Guinea.

Taylor said he feels his agency has been lucky to have experienced “consistent family harmony” over the years as well as family members with integrity who helped the business grow.

Recently the agency became a division of the Arthur J. Gallagher firm after years of being pursued by the larger firm.

“We’ll operate under our name, with the same employees at the same place,” Taylor said. The reason for the affiliation, he said, helps his agency “to get bigger and more sophisticated. We’ve got 20 people here, (Gallagher) has 10,000.”

Hard work, attention to detail and customer service, Taylor said, are the reasons his agency has thrived for more than a century, plus the contention that if it isn’t good for the customer, it’s not good for the agency.

Running a business over a long period is “a lot like farming. There’s weeds out there,” Taylor said. “If you don’t take care of them every day, the weeds will get you.”

The Boney family’s handiwork can be seen in “little red-brick schoolhouses all over North Carolina,” said Chris Boney, one of the architects in his family.

The architectural firm’s handiwork can also be seen in innovative buildings and structures throughout the state.

And, while the family firm, now part of LS3P, has “only” been around for three generations, Boney said “it’s a long three.”

How the family has kept the business successful for nearly ninety years, is “a juggling act and something we take very seriously. It’s our respect for each other and respect for the past,” Boney said.

The key, he added, is to “keep your eyes on the future and never stop looking forward. Failing to do so is a recipe for disaster.”

Leslie Norwood Boney was born in 1880 and moved to Wilmington to oversee the construction of New Hanover High School. When the person he worked for died, Leslie Boney decided to stay in Wilmington and hang out his shingle, his grandson recalled.

While the high school was the firm’s first project in the area, it was just the first of many school buildings the firm designed over the years.

Boney’s grandfather took trains all over the state, visiting little counties and building red-brick school houses across the state that “have educated generations of North Carolinians.”

And while that is a proud heritage for the family, they have expanded their base, designing everything from health-care facilities to office buildings and federal projects.

The merger in 2005 with LS3P – a firm, Boney said, that has similar values and similar professional goals, has helped the Boney firm diversify.

Leslie Boney had five children – four of whom joined the family business: Leslie Jr. and William, both deceased, and Charles and Sue, both of whom are now retired. A second daughter, Mary, was a professor of religion. The next generation provided three more family members to the firm: Paul and brothers Charles Jr. and Chris.

The family, Chris Boney said, extends beyond blood relatives to members of the firm that have been an integral part of the firm’s success: Elliott O’Neal, George Jernigan, Andy Aretakis, Katherine Peele and Jack Claywell.

“There’s several little Boneys in the next generation, whether or not they choose to go into the profession, time will tell,” Chris Boney said.